Thursday, 11 August 2011

Spot the mistakes time

"AK Session is traditional English mild ale. Mild refers to its low hopping rate. Mild is an ale intended to be consumed in quantity, thus the name “session”. AK is thought to stand for “Ale Kyte”, Flemish for “small ale”. This is a tawny colored brew that was a favorite among the farmers and laborers of the West Midlands. The alcohol content is 3.9% abv. This beer is a collaboration between Chris Erickson and Cory Buenning."

It's particularly annoying because AK is one of my favourite obsessions. Once rubbish like this takes hold, it's impossible to stamp out.

Wasn't AK lumped together with the pale ales even though it was served fresh like Mild? So more like a Bitter instead of a Mild, yes?

Also, Mild refers to the fact that was served fresh despite the fact that the name ended up defining a "low hopped ale" in the latter part of the 20th century. History is getting mixed up again.

"AK is thought to stand for “Ale Kyte”, Flemish for “small ale”."

First I've heard that.

"This is a tawny colored brew that was a favorite among the farmers and laborers of the West Midlands."

Tawny? I thought AK was typically more like a golden wheat color.

The great thing about the history of beer is that there may in fact have been a commercial beer labeled AK that matches this beer. However, I wouldn't say it's typical.

Question for Ron: In your opinion how would you say early 20th century AK differs from a modern golden colored Bitter?

Also, was AK typically called "AK" in a pub or was that an internal code name used by breweries? It seems unconventional that one would go into a bar and ask for a pint of "A-K" (or would it be pronounced "Ack!") ;)

Lessee, first there's the grandfather of all weasel words, "traditional." That should be a big warning sign right there. Traditional when? 1400? 1990?

Second, there's the whole mild = low hops thing. More or less correct in modern usage, historically not so. Partial credit.

Third, they conflate "session" beer and "mild". Ordinary Bitter or berlinerweisse is just as "sessionable" as low gravity mild, while imbibing strong mild will leave you legless as fast as any other strong beer. Still, I can't fault them for trying to sell as much of the stuff as possible.

Fifth, mild wasn't always "tawny". There were, and are, amber and pale versions. Also, any beer which called itself AK in the late 19th century was going to be a pale (relatively) low alcohol bitter ale. Things have changed since then, but Victorian AK is more likely to be the indirect precursor of today's bitters.

Sixth, while the West Midlands is one of the areas that made dark mild famous, and the place where mild seems to be making its last stand, it didn't necessarily originate there, not was it exclusively a West Midlands style. Again, half credit.

Seventh, ABV is 3.9%. That's a wee bit strong for products that called themselves mild in the latter half of the 20th century. Perhaps more in the territory of premium or best mild. Still, ABV doesn't matter that much as long as the beer is a malt-focused ale with low hop bitterness. Also, on the American market 1.5-3% ABV beer has all the market appeal of viral hepatitis. So, more partial credit.

Since I'm the charitable sort, I say not bad for guys based in a little Wyoming ski town. They've sort of got their fact straight, although it's obvious that they're not brewing historians.

It's a gutsy move for an American brewer to make any beer with less than 30 IBU and 4% ABV, much less call it a mild. And based on the medals they've won, they seem to be doing well with it.